Disagreements
by alliecat8697
Summary: Elliot and Olivia are having some problems agreeing on a case and begin to fight. Will they make up? And if they do, will something more become of their relationship? Something more than friendship, maybe? R
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I, of course, don't own anything...it's NBC's. **

**AN: Sweet little story, my second fanfic...I hope you like it! If not, then sorry! :)**

They'd been working on this case for days.

Actually, it'd only been three days, but three days was two days too many when Elliot and Olivia were working the case. They were the best detectives in the Special Victims Unit. Cases were not supposed to take more than one day, usually, unless they were simply looking for somebody but they at least knew who they were looking for. But this case was different. They had two people, and they had no idea which was the victim and which was the perpetrator. The worst part about this case was that Olivia was on one side and Elliot was on the other. Elliot found it pretty hard to believe that an eighteen-year-old boy with the muscles he'd seen had been raped by a twenty-year-old woman.

She was a woman.

Her name was Amy. She'd claimed that the eighteen-year-old boy Holton had raped her.

And Holton claimed she'd raped him.

Olivia found it pretty hard to believe that a woman two years older than the boy could have been raped and not shown any signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or anything else. And this boy was pretty convincing. He looked like he'd been raped to her.

Amy's story was that she'd been walking to the girls' bathroom at a party when Holton had grabbed her from behind, turned around their path, and taken her to the boys' bathroom and raped her. Holton said nothing about the bathrooms. He said that he'd drank one too many at the party-the same party Amy had described; at least they knew it was at a party...-and gone to lay down in a bedroom. He claimed that he'd just taken off his shoes and was going to sleep when Amy had come in and raped him. Their stories of how they were raped matched. _Matched_. So whoever really was raped was telling the truth about how it happened, and the person doing the raping was telling the truth in an opposite form. Neither of these young, stupid people would 'fess up. They were both convincing, and they both stuck to their story like glue and wouldn't budge even a single little detail. Usually in cases like these-not that there were too many anyway, but when they did occur-the liar would slip something. The liar, the perptrator, would at least mess up on one feature of the rape. But these stories were both completely plausible, and both crime scenes were completely clean, and looked nothing like a struggle had taken place there. It was kind of confusing for everybody, and it really got Elliot and Olivia into some 'heated discussions'-they weren't really willing to call them fights.

Olivia looked up from the papers on her desk and across at Elliot. It was late-eleven o'clock-and it looked like this case would be taking up their time tomorrow too. Earlier that day, Elliot had yelled at her really badly concerning her 'ridiculous, incorrect' thoughts on the case, and not only had it just pissed her off, but it embarrassed her in front of her squad. It embarrassed her because her cheeks burned and got red and she could feel everybody looking at her, and when she tried to yell back, it came out much quieter and squeaky. This wasn't something that was okay to happen when you worked in an environment with only men. All Olivia had ever wanted was for them to see her as a true detective, a woman who could hold her own just as well as they could.

Since the fight, they'd been very short with each other, snappy, and didn't make any eye contact. It was kind of hard because they both depended on each other for so much and when they were mad at each other, they couldn't ask one another for favors, advice, help, suggestions, or anything else, really. So Olivia hated it when she was crossways with Elliot, and he hated it just as much. Olivia felt that she was right in the matter. Amy had to have raped Holton, right? Not only was she two years older, but she was also not like any other rape victim Olivia had ever seen. Rape victims don't just spit out the details of their rape like nothing ever happened. Unless nothing ever did happen. And that boy had plenty of tears running down his cheeks, and Olivia just knew he had been raped.

Elliot knew he had to be right about this case, though. Holton's tears were alligator tears. He wasn't any victim. He was a very strong 18-year-old with a six pack who could easily have raped that young woman, two years older or not. Two years didn't make a difference. Olivia was wrong. Two years...Elliot was two years older than Olivia. It really did not make a difference in this case, and Elliot didn't see how Olivia didn't realize that. There was no way this strong young man was raped by that woman. No way.

Olivia suddenly stood up and slung her bag over her shoulder. "I'm out," she said quietly, walking away towards the elevator. Elliot just looked after her for a minute and got back to his paperwork. She'd get over herself. Yeah, so he felt a little guilty about yelling at her that afternoon. Actually, he felt ten times more guilty than he was willing to admit. The humiliated look on her face crossed his mind about every three minutes or so. He told himself that he really didn't care that much because he was right and that was the way things were, and Olivia was wrong and she needed to realize it, but if he didn't care, then why couldn't he get her facial expression when he was yelling at her to stop circulating through his mind? And why did he feel ashamed every time he thought of what he'd said? He was right, anyway. He pushed it out of his mind and got up and left. Olivia would forget it anyway, and so would he, right after this case was over.

The next day at work was their last day to squeeze the truth out of Holton and Amy. If they couldn't get the truth out, they'd both walk free because of their rights not to be held too long. Olivia interviewed Amy because she was against Amy, which gave her a mental advantage when interrogating, and Elliot interviewed Holton, because the same interrogation techniques of Olivia's applied to him.

Olivia walked into Amy's interrogation room. She was about to try a new technique. Lying. "Now, Amy, are you sure he raped you? Because he's telling my partner the truth right now. I cracked Holton wide open, I scared him really good, and he's telling my partner everything right now. He's telling him exactly what really, truly happened. So if you want to get a deal, I suggest you tell me the truth of how he didn't really rape you. You might not have any jail time at all if you tell me right now."

Amy stared at her a long time. Olivia felt like she may be getting her to crack, but then Amy just said, "You're crazy, okay? He raped me! He raped me! I already told you the truth!" She screamed these words, but she didn't have any emotion in her rage. She was probably only screaming because she was sick of sitting in the dull interrogation room.

"No, you're not telling the truth. You aren't. I've seen rape victims. I am a rape victim," Olivia said, and watched as Amy's eyes widened. Yeah, so she was stretching the truth. A whole, whole lot. But she was kind of raped. Almost. No, she wasn't really _raped_ raped. But she had come close. And Olivia didn't really care if she lied anymore. "I know what it feels like to be raped, and if this happened to you just Monday night, then there is no way that you could possibly be this calm and collected. I know that months, _months_ after I was raped, I still cried all the time. It was horrible. There's no way you were raped."

Amy just looked to the side. She looked very affected by Olivia's words, but still not like a rape victim by any means. "I was raped."

She was seriously still going to lie? Now it was time for Olivia to get this out of her. Now. Olivia forced herself to cry. Any time she wanted to cry these days, she just forced herself to think of Harris's face and she immediately felt hot tears burn down her face. That's exactly what happened. Little sprinkles of tears flooded out of her eyes slowly. "Do you have any idea how much of a disgrace I consider it when somebody lies about being raped? It's unfair, it's sadistic, it's selfish. Because I know what you really have to go through when you are really raped. I know what it's like!" she screamed, standing up and slamming her fist down on the cold, steel table. "So don't joke around with me! Don't joke with me, Amy! It isn't funny!" Now Olivia was crying harder because she was remembering how horrible her attack was, whether she'd really been raped or not. She'd come close enough.

Now Amy was crying from the pressure, and she looked scared. She still didn't say anything. But she cried. Hard. Olivia had one more lie that she thought would push Amy over the edge.

"And you know what?" Olivia screamed very loudly, hoping Elliot wasn't watching her interrogate. But she was pretty sure he was. "You have about one more hour to tell me the full truth, or else you both go to jail! Both of you, raped or not, will be taken to prison and locked up, most likely in solitary confinement!"

"Under what charges?" Amy demanded to know, standing up to meet Olivia's height.

Now Olivia was stuck. She had to think of a bogus charge. "Filing a false report, lying to police officers-"

"That could never get us solitary confinement!" Amy yelled. She wasn't quite as stupid as Olivia had thought she was.

"You didn't let me finish. You'll be locked up for filing a false report, lying to police officers, and...entrapment!" _Entrapment? Smooth, Benson. Where'd you pull that out of? Your ass? She'll never believe this...will she...?_

"Entrapment? What's that?"

"It's a law, Amy, that says that if you make up a bunch of B.S. about somebody, knowing that they can suffer jail time or worse consequences, and you don't change your story within two days, you can be charged with it. You'll have an extra twenty years added on, and that'll get you your solitary confinement." Amy seemed to be believing this. Horror and realization filled her features. "So it's your choice, Amy. Tell me the truth right now-"

"I'll tell you everything, _everything_, if you'll get me no jail time," she cut Olivia off.

_Haha, Stabler, who's right now? Huh? Who? Me!_ "Okay, not a bit of jail time, but I can't promise you won't have community service," Olivia said triumphantly.

Amy sat back down and looked at Olivia reluctantly. "Look, there was no sex. Ever. We never had any intercourse, nothing. I got mad at Holton because he told everybody I was a slut when I wouldn't date him. Everyone hated me. The pressure was intolerable. So I told Holton that I was going to tell the police that he raped me if he didn't stop. I told him every detail of my story, what I'd say, everything, which I guess was kind of stupid since he was able to use my story against me. He didn't stop telling everybody I was a slut and that I'd screwed five people one night at a party...so I filed the charges."

Everything fell into place like a puzzle in Olivia's mind. That was why Amy hadn't gotten a rape kit. Because there hadn't been any evidence anyway. Because a rape never occured. That was why there wasn't any sign of a struggle at either of the 'crime scenes'. Olivia's triumphant look faded off of her face because she realized that they were both wrong. Her and Elliot had both been wrong, and they'd gotten into a fight so bad that Olivia was considering abolishing their partnership because of Amy's and Holton's lies. Olivia didn't say anything to Amy. She just got up from the silver chair and walked out of the interrogation room, wiping away her fake-well, somewhat fake-tears she'd had to use to convince Amy to tell the truth. Olivia saw Elliot, and knew he'd watched the entire interrogation. She walked past him, glancing his way but not saying a word.

**AN: Please, please, please review! I don't write more until I'm assured that somebody's reading my stories! **


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I still don't own anything :(**

Olivia left the precinct and got dinner. She ate Italian food, and then got a taxi back to the precinct to finish her paperwork and gather her things. She walked in, it was around 8:30, and she was a little tired, but not at all tired enough to put off finishing her paperwork and do it the next day. She was sure everybody had left because everybody else got all their work done, and then they left. But Olivia was too hungry, so she just decided she'd stay late tonight. They wouldn't have to go in early in the morning anyway, because they'd finally gotten that stupid case solved, so she saw no problem in staying up. But she was surprised when she saw Elliot sitting at his desk as she entered the room. She wasn't going to be nice, but she still wanted to know why he was there.

"What are you doing here?" she asked quietly. She said it not in a mean voice, but not in a happy one either. She just kind of squeaked it out.

He stared back at her for a moment. Was he...thinking? Of what to tell her? Because when she'd seen him sitting there, his head had been down on his desk. He wasn't doing paperwork. So why was he still here, just sitting there? He was contemplating a lie to tell her. She could practically see the wheels in his head turning. Apparently he couldn't think of a good answer, so he said, "I guess I could ask you the same thing."

Olivia took note of how he avoided her original question. "I was hungry earlier, so I went to eat. Now I have a little paperwork to finish," she said, turning her eyes to the screen and beginning to type up a report. She typed so fast, probably somewhere around 92 words per minute. Elliot could only type about 70. She finished the first section of a report within two minutes, she typed so fast.

"Oh," was all Elliot said in response.

"So, why are you here?" she asked again.

He just turned his face to his computer. "I was about to go home. Thought I'd check my email before I left," he answered.

_Bogus_, Olivia thought. Olivia didn't say anything. She continued to type the reports. She was already on her last one within about ten more minutes. When she finished, she printed a few papers, stuck them in a file, and put them in her desk drawer. She was about to grab her purse and leave, but then decided she needed to at least try to work things out with Elliot. Or semi-work things out, maybe. At least get things decent enough with him that she could be fairly comfortable working with him. She propped herself up on her desk with her elbows and rubbed the side of her neck, looking at him. He finally returned her look. She had a look of regret on her face. That classic Olivia look that said, "How could we both have been so stupid/oblivious/careless/naive?"

She finally looked back down at her cup of coffee. Then she picked it back up and took a sip. "You embarrassed me," was all she said. She didn't have the nerve to say a whole lot more than that. "That's why I was upset," she said, taking another sip and looking at her computer, even though the screen was blank.

"I know that," he answered.

She continued to look at the screen. Was he ever going to man up and just apologize to her?

"I just got on the opposite side of the case than you," he said.

She nodded and looked back at him, leaning back in her chair.

He got up from his desk and started to walk away. He walked beside her, squeezed her shoulder, and without looking at her, said, "I'm sorry." Not exactly the lovey-dovey apology she'd wanted, the one she thought she deserved. But that was Elliot. And her. They just had trouble showing their feelings. They both knew how much they cared for each other, but they just didn't feel the need to express it. Or they didn't want to admit it. Either way, they just stayed professional most of the time.

Olivia watched as he walked back through the hall, but instead of turning the way he usually turned to leave, he turned the opposite way. Needing to leave anyway, she decided she could get her stuff and get a glimpse of him as she left. She picked up her purse, slipped on her coat, and walked down the hall and looked down the side of the corridor which Elliot had walked towards. Was he just running a quick errand in the building before leaving? The exit was the opposite way Elliot had turned. Olivia decided to follow him. She wouldn't let it be known that she was following him.

She walked down the hall, trailing some ten feet behind him quietly, and saw that they were on the route to the crib. The crib? Is that where he was going? Maybe he'd left something up there. She was hoping for a ride home anyway, so she continued to follow him. He walked into the silent, dark crib, leaving the door open. Olivia didn't go any further in fear that he would see her shadow. She wanted to know why he was up here and why he hadn't turned the light on when he went in. If he was looking for something, he'd have turned the light on. Was he sleeping here? A few minutes later, she heard the noise of a matress crinkling, and she knew he was. She waited a minute until it was quiet and he was obviously settled before walking into the doorway. He didn't react. She saw his shirt and shoes laying on the ground. Figuring he hadn't seen her shadow, Olivia walked in and sat down at the bottom of the bed on which she could make out Elliot's buff silhouette. He noticed her now.

He turned over on his back and looked at her, although he couldn't really see her because it was so dark. She set her hand down on his leg quickly, like it was no big deal at all, even though her touch kind of gave him goosebumps and he didn't know why. She gave him a sympathetic smile, but he couldn't really see it. She'd closed the door when she came in.

"We're okay?" Olivia asked quietly, in almost a whisper, in that husky voice of hers.

"Yeah."

She was quiet a minute. "Have we progressed at all from where we were five years ago?"

He didn't answer.

"Valerie Sennet case," she reminded him.

He looked down at her. Her hand was still on his lower thigh, just above his knee, her thumb stroking it. It was kind of intimidating. She stopped stroking it, but left her soft, light hand resting there. He was suddenly hyperaware of everything. Of how good she smelled, of how beautiful just her shadow looked in front of him. He pushed the thoughts out of his mind.

"Are we?"

"I'd like to think so," she replied. Before he could say anything else, she added, "But this case made me second-guess that."

He stayed quiet a minute. "I'd hope that we've gotten a little better in five years," he said finally.

She paused before saying anything. "I'm sorry that things didn't work out well with this case," she said, kind of wanting to just say, "I'm sorry," but not really thinking he deserved it after the way he'd yelled at her the other day.

He just kind of nodded and layed his head back down.

After a minute of silence, Olivia quietly asked, "Why aren't you at home, Elliot?"

Elliot normally wouldn't have answered, but right now, with that soft hand sitting on his leg, and her finger stroking him yet again, he was in a particularly revealing mood. He sighed. "I don't have a home, Liv."

She had kind of figured, but she was still surprised he was apart from Kathy again. She was quiet again. She wasn't sure why they kept having minutes of silence after every sentence they said, but it was just kind of a special, clear-the-air pause that they always had before continuing their discussions. "How long?" she asked.

He thought for a minute. "About three months now."

"I'm sorry, El." Olivia kind of wanted to ask, "What happened?" or "Did she leave you, or did you leave her?" but figured if he wanted to tell her anything he would. She didn't want to upset him or push him. She just wanted to be gentle and calm.

"I kind of saw it coming anyway. I see the kids once a month."

Once again, Olivia wanted to say things that she would never say, like, "What? Only once a month?" but decided against it in fear that it would only make things seem worse for him. So she just sighed and moved her hand up to his bare stomach, on his rib. Her warm, very soft hand resting on his bare stomach. This made him feel even more weird. Kind of lustful. He'd left Kathy three months ago. That was a long time for a guy who'd been married for twenty-three years to go without sex. So he couldn't help but feel a little turned on by Olivia. But at the same time his feelings pissed him off. He had to stop that. Like she'd once said, that was "never gonna happen." Right? Right. _No, Stabler, don't think like that. Ever._ He felt her hand leave his stomach and felt her weight lift off of the mattress.

"So, why don't you just come on to my place?" she asked. Pause. "You know Cragen's gonna be pissed if he finds out you're here all the time. It's supposed to be a temporary place, you know," she said, with a teeny, tiny chuckle.

He didn't get up. He just sighed.

"Come on. You can stay in my guest bedroom. Let's go," she said, gently tapping his arm.

He didn't put up much of a fight. He got up and followed her out to the parking lot. They got into his car, which had unobtrusively been left overnight at the precinct for three months in a row. He drove it out of the parking lot and into the traffic.

"You haven't eaten, right?" She asked.

"Nope."

"Well, I have, so you wanna just grab some take-out?" she suggested.

"Yeah," he answered.

Getting take-out tonight-Saturday night-would add at least another twenty minutes to their drive. Saturday night traffic in Manhattan was unbearable. Olivia didn't really mind though, because it gave her a little more talking time with Elliot.

But for a while they didn't talk. Things were silent. Elliot eventually called in a Chinese order to pick up.

"I wonder if Amy will still be hated at school after this," Olivia said after about five minutes.

Elliot didn't answer because he didn't know what to say.

"I can't believe an uproar like this could happen because she declined a date..." she continued, shaking her head slightlly.

"Kids are becoming worse these days," he responded.

She nodded a little and the silence enveloped them once again. "How'd you cry in interrogation today?" he asked, a tiny, barely visible grin on his face because he kind of found it amusing that she could just cry on cue.

"Easy," she said, moving her hand.

"So you can just cry for no reason if you want. That's it...?"

Olivia was quiet. She didn't think it was funny at all, unlike Elliot. But Elliot didn't know any different. "Not exactly," she answered, looking out the window.

This made him look at her. He didn't want to push her, but he was kind of confused. "What's that mean?"

She sighed, shook her head, and looked at the windshield now rather than her window. "I have reasons."

"For crying?"

Her eyes were burning with tears. Not that there was any way she'd let them fall. She didn't answer him, she just kept her eyes flitting from the window to the windshield, her jaw defined and beautiful, so he stared at her expectantly for an answer.

"Yeah," she said quietly.

He really didn't want to push her too hard, but this was beginning to kind of worry him. "Like...?" he asked.

She just shook her head calmly and looked out the window again, her eyes glassy.

"Liv, tell me," he said, a little more firmly but not too pushy, like he did whenever he was trying to get her to talk.

She looked back at him with watery eyes, but she wouldn't let a tear escape. "If I just think of Harris's face I can cry as much as I want," she stated quietly, gazing at him intensely, angrily. Her anger was not for him, but for Harris. Then, deciding she'd made a bad choice, she looked back out the window.

This guy was in prison. How was she still thinking of him, three years later? What had he really done to her? Elliot looked at Olivia sympathetically, sadness for her etched on his face. He reached over and put a hand on her arm. "Don't torture yourself like that. It's not worth it-"

"I'd say it was worth it. It helped me get the truth out of Amy. It got rid of our fighting," she interrupted.

Elliot closed his mouth. They stopped at a red light and he looked at her, his eyes wider and deeper and much more understanding than usual. He stayed quiet for a long minute, then said quietly, "Tell me what happened with Harris."

She just shook her head. "No, El. It's not anything I want to discuss."

"Please," he begged, looking forward as the light finally turned to green and he drove forward.

"It's not that I don't want you to know. It's embarrassing, Elliot. I...I felt vulnerable when it happened, and every time I talk about it I feel like a kid, rather than a cop," she explained.

Elliot knew she wasn't going to get into it, but she'd released one thing that he thought he may be able to use to get some more details out of her. "Why did you feel vulnerable?" he asked, looking over at her.

She stared at him with her mouth shut and sighed out of her nose, making a little more noise than intended. Her eyes were still glassy and she looked miserable. He felt bad that he was pushing her to talk about this, but he wanted to know. He almost needed to know, so that he wouldn't worry about her 24/7. He hated when he did that. It reminded him that he cared about her a little too much more than he should have.

"He, ah...He had me handcuffed. To a door...when he tried to rape me," she said quietly, deep in thought, yet not thinking about what she revealed to Elliot.

Rape her?_ Rape her_? Who said anything about rape? Even if she'd said, 'tried to rape'. Still, _rape_? That wasn't what Elliot had heard. Elliot had heard that Harris had assaulted her. He automatically assumed he'd punched her, hit her, something bad like that. Yes, those all seemed fairly bad, but rape? That wasn't what he'd expected. He tried to keep the confusion off his face, but she noticed it.

"Were you expecting something different?" she asked, trying to make eye contact with him but failing. It was as if she'd read his mind.

"I...didn't know there was a sexual motive behind it," he said.

She didn't want to talk about this. At all. "Look, if you want the details, ask Fin. He knows what happened. I don't want to talk about this anymore. At all whatsoever," she said, making a gesture with her hand and then looking out the window and becoming silent again.

"Okay," he said, rubbing her arm with his hand that had already been settled on her.

They pulled up at the Chinese food place and Elliot ran in and got his food. He came back to the car, shivering from the freezing cold, and put down his food and began to drive to Olivia's apartment. After about ten minutes of more silence, more freaking silence, Elliot asked, "Look, are you sure it's okay for me to stay at your place? 'Cause I mean, I've been staying in the crib for three months. I can keep staying there if I need to." Really, he wanted to stay at Olivia's apartment. He loved her company and he couldn't imagine how much better his day could be if he woke up to her beautiful face. Not that it mattered. They'd never be...together, or anything silly like that. At least, he was pretty sure. Because that was just ridiculously unprofessional. But a woman could be thought of as amazingly sexy without the man claiming it necessarily having the hots for her, right? Yes, of course. There were lots of amazingly sexy women that Elliot would never even think about dating. Although Olivia had to be the most beautiful. _I've got to quit thinking like this,_ he thought.

"El, it's fine. You're going to get in trouble if Cragen catches you up there," she said.

"All right. Thanks, Liv," he said, finally arriving at her apartment building.

They walked into her building and got in the elevator. They were both quiet. The silence was comfortable for a minute, but after a while the utter, complete silence was just too quiet. It became obnoxious. But then the elevator doors opened back up and they climbed out. Olivia's hall wasn't too loud, but it was louder than that stupid elevator.

They walked down the hall to Olivia's apartment, put their things down, and both collapsed on Olivia's couch. As he looked around Olivia's apartment, he was immediately reminded that he hadn't actually been inside it for over six months. That was a pretty long time. He wished they could go back to five years ago when they were close, when they were very best friends, when all they had was each other. That was kind of how it was now, only they didn't put their feelings in the open anymore. They never really had in the first place, but now they were both even less revealing. Elliot wished that he could be completely comfortable around her again, that he could tell her some of the things he wanted to say again. But he couldn't. Olivia had been right when she said things were 'complicated'. The word 'complicated' pretty much summed up their whole relationship. It pissed him off because he couldn't feel as open and relaxed around her as he did five years ago. Five years ago, when he was sure there was a potential relationship as more than friends between them. He wanted that again. Part of him was glad he and Kathy had split. It had kind of been a compromise for both of them. They'd agreed, they'd both wanted to be apart. He hoped Olivia could see that his door was open again. But he wasn't sure if she felt anything. He wasn't sure if he felt anything. His feelings changed every second.

**AN: Please, please, please leave me some reviews! If you like it I will continue! :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: This chapter is kind of long...but you guys don't mind, right? :) Oh, and also I had to say-there's a point in the beginning of the chapter where it talks about how Olivia's favorite band is U2...that's really Mariska's favorite band! Cool, right? And it's mine too! And I swear, as weird as it sounds, I loved 'em before I found out they were Mariska's favorite...you should all give them a listen! :) **

Elliot once again looked around her living room, shocked at how much it had changed. She'd gotten a new bookshelf and it held tons of books, she'd gotten a new television. She'd gotten a new coat rack which actually only held three of her one zillion coats but held about five of her stylish hats that she hardly wore anyway. He also noticed a new shelf with tons of CDs on it.

"Did you always have that many CDs?" he asked casually as Olivia kicked her feet up on the coffee table.

"Yeah, I had all the CDs, just no where to put them. They were in boxes in my closet," she answered.

He got up, putting his hand on her thigh for support. He walked over to the shelf and looked at all the CDs. His eyes scanned across albums of different genres and eras. He saw Foreigner, Styx, Lynrd Skynrd, Kiss, Van Halen, Pat Benetar, The Bangles-from the 80s mainly. But he also saw some newer CDs on the shelf. Ciara, The Black Eyed Peas, Leona Lewis, Chris Daughtry, Sara Evans, and the most surprising yet-he even saw a CD by Lady GaGa. But there was only one. The majority was 80s rock. But there was also a few Beatles albums. And there was the Bee Gees, all sorts of music. But there were about six or seven different CDs by U2. He liked them quite a bit.

"You listen to U2?"

"Yeah. I love 'em. But their old music is better than their new," she replied.

"I know...you ever seen them in concert?"

"Yeah."

"What'd you think of them?" he asked, picking up their 1983 album, War.

"Horrible."

"Horrible?" he repeated, wincing slightly.

"Well, they sang okay, but not too great. The thing that really messed it up, though, was that all they did was talk about the Irish Revolution. They're a little too political for me. Did you see them?"

"Nope," he replied.

Elliot became suddenly determined to fix their friendship. To become comfortable around her again, like he used to be. All they talked about these days was work. They never really got off the subject anymore, they didn't go to bars after work anymore, they didn't eat dinner together all the time, they hardly even ever talked about anything other than their cases. Elliot was going to make that happen again. He needed it to. He wasn't going to pull a move on her; he wasn't even sure if he wanted to be more than friends with her. But he wanted to be the way they used to be.

"El, your food's getting cold," she said.

"Oh, yeah," he said, taking the to-go box to the kitchen and pulling out a fork from her drawer.

"I'm gonna go take a shower while you eat. I'll be out in a minute," she said, getting up and walking towards the hall.

Elliot grinned at her expectantly.

"Don't give me that look. I'll leave you hot water," she said with a chuckle, walking back to her master bedroom.

Ah, step one covered. She had laughed. Now he just needed that to happen a lot more.

Olivia walked into her bathroom, pulling off her clothes on the way and dropping them on the floor. She got in the shower and instantly felt relaxed as the hot water powerfully spit at her skin and drizzled down her body. She didn't want her make up to all come off, so she guarded her face with her hands. She shaved her olive legs to a smooth, silky perfection and washed her body with a good-smelling, foamy soap. Eventually she finished and pushed open the glass shower door, a ton of mist escaping into the fresh air of the bathroom. She quickly closed the door so the mirror wouldn't fog up and pulled on her tan robe. As she put on some lotion that smelled slightly of alcohol but mainly of delicious strawberries, she thought of Elliot. She was more than relieved to have time alone with him. She hadn't ever wished that he split from Kathy. That wasn't what she'd wanted. She'd just wanted some time to actually talk to him again for a while about something other than work. She could sense he wanted that too, but if he did, why didn't he ever invite her to dinner or something after work? She was just glad she'd get some time to have a good, long conversation with him without interruptions.

Olivia walked to her mirror, saw that her make up had hardly smudged at all despite the fog of the shower, and pulled out a tube of mascara. She quickly applied some, put on some chapstick, and went to her drawers to find some clothes. She decided on an NYPD tee and some black gauchos that extended to the tip of her knee. She noticed she'd forgotten to completely shut her window. No wonder it had been so cold in there. She went up to the window to shut it, and saw that it was snowing. Hard. She saw that the sidewalk was covered in snow that had been trampled on by tons of people. It must have been snowing really hard, because a sheet of snow was sitting over everything below her, and it had only been about three hours since she'd been outside. She closed the window and shivered. Then she sprayed on some perfume that was the same scent of the lotion she'd earlier put on, then walked into her livingroom and saw Elliot sitting on the couch. She walked in and sat down beside him.

"It's snowing," she announced.

He turned to look at her. "How bad?"

"It's only snowed for around two or three hours and the streets are already covered," she replied.

"I hope it gets worse. Maybe Cragen will let us come in late," he said.

"I doubt it," she scoffed.

"I wish," he responded.

They were quiet for a minute as Olivia brushed her hair. "We should get to bed, I guess," she said.

"Yeah."

"Although I'm not tired," she chuckled.

"Me neither," he agreed.

She finished brushing her hair and set the brush down on the coffee table. "Well," she said, trying to think of something they could do. "Wanna watch a movie?"

"Sounds good," he replied, getting up and walking towards her movie cabinet.

Olivia stayed seated. "Hey, El?"

"Hm?" he grunted, looking at the movies.

"Do you have clothes here?"

He thought about that for a minute as he pulled out The Ring. "Yeah, I think I have some in your guest bedroom," he answered finally.

She stood up and walked over to where he was standing. She put her hand on the back of his shoulder and looked at the movie.

"We are not watching this," she said, flattening her hand open in the air as a hand gesture.

"Why not?"

She stared at him.

"We're watching this," he said, laughing lightly and opening the DVD.

"You're really gonna do this to me...?" Olivia grumbled.

"Have you seen it before?"

"Only a few parts. Have you?" she asked hesitantly.

"Same. I've seen the part where the horse-" he paused. "Nevermind. But I've only seen a few parts because Maureen was watching it."

"Ah. So you feel my pain. Let's put it up."

"No way," he said, putting it in the DVD player.

Olivia stared at him. "Whatever," she said, giving in after she realized he wasn't going to put the movie up. She sat down on the couch and pulled her big blanket down from where it was resting over the back of her couch. Elliot clicked the pause button.

"I'm going to see if I have clothes here or not," he said, exiting into the hall.

He left Olivia sitting there, with a wondering mind. She wondered how she got so lucky that tonight she got the chance to repair their friendship. She wondered whether or not things would be weird when they sat there and watched the terrifying movie and she most likely freaked out. She found it kind of odd that they were really going to sit on her couch and watch a scary movie. This wasn't them. They didn't do this. Ever. Not even five years ago. Although it was strange, she still was happy to spend time with Elliot.

Elliot entered the livingroom again in an NYPD shirt like hers and some gray sweat pants.

"So you did have clothes," Olivia said as Elliot flipped off the light and sat down beside her.

"The sweat pants are yours," he said.

"You fit in my clothes?" she asked, instinctively looking at the pants but not seeing anything because of the darkness.

"Not exactly. Kinda small," he chuckled.

She pressed the play button. "I'm not going to like this movie."

"Who cares?"

"ME!" she yelled playfully, slapping his chest.

He laughed for a minute and then pulled some covers over his legs. Luckily for him, their legs weren't touching yet. He didn't want her to know that she gave him goosebumps. He wasn't quite sure why she made him shiver, but she did, and if she knew that she'd surely think she turned him on. And she kind of did. But not really. He had to ignore that.

The movie started out kind of slow. It wasn't scary for about the first three minutes. Those whole three minutes Olivia got to watch the movie happily. Then it wasn't so great. Just the first time the television became static and a ring was showed, Olivia pulled her feet up to the couch. Then, a little later in the movie, when she actually saw the face of the girl killed by the tape, she did what she dreaded doing-she gasped and leaned closer to Elliot. A lot closer. They were now sitting right next to each other, Elliot's feet propped up on the coffee table and Olivia's legs up on the couch. Then they saw the video everybody watched to die in the movie, and Olivia shuddered. Eventually, she freaked out. She didn't scream, but she freaked out. And it pissed her off that she was doing this in front of Elliot, but her mind was on the movie. Elliot was creeped out, but he didn't show it.

After an amount of time, their eyes got adjusted to the dark, and at some point, rather than watching the movie, Elliot began to watch Olivia's facial expressions. They changed from one of shock, to one of horror, to one of curiosity, to one of nervousness. He couldn't believe he was really sitting there beside her, watching a movie. It was more than weird. Although he liked it quite a bit. She smelled seductive, she looked beautiful, her legs beside his body were soft and smooth. He really didn't mind having this beautiful woman beside him, watching a horror movie. Not that it mattered because they'd never go there. But he took some pleasure in it.

Finally, towards the end, she shuddered, turned away, and huffed into Elliot's shoulder, which was tight in her grip.

"Okay, turn it off, Elliot. I don't like this. Seriously."

Elliot thought of jokingly mocking her but decided against it. "Oh, come on, Liv, it's not that bad."

"Yeah it is."

"Okay, so it is. Rated number 3 on the scariest movies of all time."

"Exactly. And you know this how?"

"Internet."

She stared at him, forgetting about the movie.

"If you hate it so much, why do you own it?"

"I got it as a present a long time ago," she replied. She looked back at the screen and turned back around and grabbed Elliot's shoulder. Olivia didn't really scream like a little girl in these scary movies like most people did. No, she just turned away, put her hand in the air, and began to look sick. She was too serious and tough to get way too worked up about it. She just looked uncomfortable and disconcerted. Elliot kind of wanted to meet her needs and turn it off, but at the same time, he knew that would probably mean she'd take her hand off of his shoulder and scoot away from him so their bodies were no longer touching. He didn't want that.

Elliot didn't really get to think any longer about his decision because Olivia ripped the remote from his hand and switched the television off. For a minute everything was silent and pitch black, other than the sound of their breathing, which was a little louder than normal because of the panic of the movie. Not to mention the nervous beating of their hearts.

Things stayed silent. Neither one of them wanted to be the one to break it. After about two minutes of nervous silence, Olivia couldn't take it anymore. She scooted over to Elliot and placed her hands on his chest. And then he turned his body around and put his hands on Olivia's back and pulled her close to him gently all in one swift move. Elliot was laying down on his back now, and Olivia was beside him on her stomach, her leg draped over him, her arms hugging him. In fact, she was almost on top of him, only none of her weight was really on him. Her face rested in his neck. Was this wrong? She'd always wanted it but thought it would never happen. But Elliot had pulled her into him. He'd wanted it too.

Her arms around his chest, she began kissing his neck. Then she worked her way up to his jaw. He was allowing it. In fact, he seemed to really be enjoying it. He moved his hands around on her back, he kissed the top of her head. Olivia suddenly realized just how wrong it was. Wanting more but knowing she shouldn't have it, she pulled back and climbed off the couch.

"I, ah, I better go to bed, El," she said, breathing roughly.

He sat up and took a minute to answer. "Yeah, yeah, of course."

She stood there and looked at what she could see of him in the darkness for a minute. Then she leaned down, kissed the corner of his mouth, and walked away in the darkness towards her bedroom.

But then she turned back around. She knew she wanted it. She also knew it was wrong, but she wanted more. Badly. She walked back down the hall and into the livingroom. She walked over to the couch. Elliot sensed her presence. She awkwardly stood there for a moment, and he propped himself up on his elbows.

"Do you want this?" she said, partially sighing it but not actually releasing all of her breath.

He didn't answer for a long second and she was getting scared he'd say no. But then he pulled through and asked, "Do you?"

Now it was her turn not to answer for a minute. Did she want it? Yes, of course. Would she say that? Not quite so easy of a question. But she sensed that he wanted it too. He had to. She wouldn't have felt this way for him if he hadn't earned it with all his flirting at work. Well, semi-flirting. A much more sophisticated flirting. But it was flirting.

"Yeah..." she said, her husky voice barely above a whisper. "But...it's your decision...maybe this is wrong. Do you think it is?" she asked.

He stood up and touched her cheek. How he knew where her cheek was in the blackness was beyond Olivia's comprehension. "Yeah," he said. Olivia's heart sunk but instantly rose again when he surprisingly leaned in and kissed her gently on the lips.

He pulled back just a little bit to make sure her reaction wasn't bad, then kissed her again. And she allowed this. She liked it. A lot. At least he thought so, until she pulled back. Although he couldn't see her, he could tell she was upset. It was like some kind of...7th sense. He just knew her.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

She pulled his head close to her chest and kissed it. Her actions shocked him more by the minute. "I've always loved you."

Elliot kissed her back. He was so busy kissing her that all he could get out was, "Same here."

**AN: Okay, so I'm pretty happy with how I left the characters, I think this was a good ending. I'm pretty sure this story is over because I'm just really satisfied with the way it ended. I don't think it needs anymore to be added. But if you think I should write more of it, just say so... :)**


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